“The State Security had checked 11 450 letters in order to identify a sender of secret messages and his handwriting. It must had been really toilsome for them.”
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Miroslav Janda was born on 27th November in 1929 in Prague. In years 1947-51 he had studied at high school of forestry in Písek. After he graduated he enlisted regular military service. In 60’s his brother introduced him to Wolfgang Fanki, an officer of German Secret Service (BND), who has recruited Miroslav as a secret agent in 1971. Janda had been working in Hydrometeorological Institute in those dayes. Therefore he could move around the whole country freely while making water measurements and gather intelligence especially about the soviet army. In the first two years Janda sent eight ciphered letters, later he had used a special pencil with an invisible lead. As a member of volleyball staff he accompanied sport teams to Western Europe where he regularly met his counterparts from BND to report gathered intelligence. However The State Security succeeded in detecting all his letters and was even able to read those written by the invisible lead. In spite of this success it took seven years before The State Security uncovered Janda’s identity. Janda was arrested on 17th of February in 1978 and had been interrogated almost a year. Then he was sentenced for ten years imprisonment for treason and espionage according the article 105. In February he was moved to prison Valdice, where he was assigned for trinket production. Janda was released on 17th of January in 1988. He had worked as a cleaner and in September 1988 he found a job washing dishes in a snack bar at Venceslav square. Only after the fall of communism he could withdraw reward for his intelligence service for BND from a Munich bank. Janda has retired and has been writing books about his experience of the secret agent.